tonight on "nightline," the spy who loved me. do it yourself snoops, spying on ex-husbands and cheating boyfriends, with tiny cameras and recorders hidden in peepholes, teddy bears, or children's clothing. as custody wars go hi-tech. while you were sleeping. today a startling new study reports that nearly one in three american adults sleep walks and it doesn't stop there, from binge eating to having sex, the surprising things people are doing while fast asleep. and when household kitties become cats out of hell. owners are forced to call in the world famous cat daddy.

but can he help one kitten-loving correspondent win over his finicky feline? good evening, i'm terry moran. it's been said that all is fair in love and war, but in a world of very angry ex-spouses, and very tiny miniature cameras, i seems all bets are off. thanks to evolving technology that makes snooping simple, people are bugging everything, from eyeglasses to pens, even their own kids. but what happens when squabbling ex-s try to use that in court? >> reporter: it's the latest weaponry in the hi-tech relationship war, spying and

snooping, via surveillance footage like this, recorded secretly a michelle russell. she'd been living with marcus for three years when she started to suspect he wasn't being faithful. >> tell me he had to work late a lot of approximate rushing off the phone when i would call him. i'm like, that's weird. >> have suspicions and want to conduct your own investigations? >> she turned to cheaters, which provides do it yourself spy equipment to lovers with suspicions. >> they gave me a clock cam, basically it has a camera already installed, i just had to place it in my living room. and when they called me to look at that footage, i was like, wow. >> all caught on camera, michelle's fears seem to be confirmed. >> we've identified this young woman as an intern at the business where marcus works.

>> are you kidding me? >> reporter: moments later, she kpronts him while he's out with the other woman. >> marcus! in my bed that we laid in for three years? >> it's not the truth. >> what do you mean? it's on camera. >> reporter: michelle is not the only one spying on a loved one to gather evidence. enter the domestic spy shop. >> and the camera is right here. >> cellphone tracking, gps, cameras and microphones, small and cheap enough, often less than $300 for do it yourself snooping. some small enough to be mounted on a key chain to capture this bar-room rendezvous or on a motel room peephole to catch cheaters waiting for the coast to be clear, when clearly it's not. divorce lawyers say digital evidence like this is being used in an increasing number of divorce cases, and believe it or not, custody battles too. >> birthday party.

>> take duke of omaha, he's in a vicious battle over his 7-year-old daughter whose mother rigged her teddy bear with a microphone and told her to carry it at all times. >> removed a few stitches, replaced the recording device inside of the bear's head, plug it in to the future and download all our conversations. >> in the high stakes world of child custody, kids are both the prize and the weapon. >> the one thing that's exchanged between the warring parties is the child. so the child becomes sort of a trojan horse. >> john kinney is a divorce attorney who has worked on a number of these hi-tech cases. >> it's illegal and it's a crime. >> reporter: he took duke's wife to court over the teddy bear mike. she was find $10,000 for violating wire tapping laws and the tapes were thrown out-of-court. but the law is murky. in 38 states it's legal to record in a public place.

federal wire tapping laws protect the privacy of your cellphone conversation and your computer, but most of the time, judges don't allow it. do it yourself spies should beware. the plan can backfire. take this, a seemingly innocent pair of jeans, perhaps exhibit a in a brutal custody battle. >> i know it's -- leave it right there. >> ryan, a father in texas, who has asked us not to use his last name for the sake of his son, made what he said was a shocking discovery on a recent visitation. he says his son was being used to spy on him arks tape recorder sewn into the blue jeans. >> my son told meerks mom has all these recordings in the house. i pulled my son close to me and patted him down and found the recorder. >> he made this video on the spot. we got a recorder stitched into

my son's pants. >> you pick your child up, for a fun visit, never thinking that he's got a recording device on him. >> brian's attorney has filed a complaint alleging violation of wire-tapping laws. but his wife told us he's a three-time convicted felon currently on parole. she told us, the allegation of wire-tapping is inaccurate and is in the process of being dismissed throughout an agreement between he and you. >> brian told us the charges are old and don't reflect on his parenting ability. >>as for her ex-boyfriend, he wrote, i feel like my privacy and my character was violated. it was never proven that i actually did anything wrong. i wouldn't wish that scenario on anyone. but michelle says, she has no regrets about spying. >> i'm sorry, do you forgive me? >> behave in your relationship as if there could be a camera

on, because you never know. >> reporter: because in today's ever-watching world, not only is all fair in love and war, almost anything is possible too. i'm jim avila in omaha, nebraska. just ahead, from sleep eating to night terrors, the surprising things people are doing while snoozing. i haand then i have eleven my grandkids. right when you see them, they're yours, it's like, ah, it's part of me. it's me again. now that i'm retiring they all have plans for me. i'm excited.

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today a wake-up call about a major bedtime phenomenon. a new study found one in three americans have experienced sleep walking. making it far more common than ever thought before.

homer simpson sleep walking high jinks have become long-running punchlines, for some people they can have unexpected and even dangerous consequences. >> reporter: if you don't sleep walk or sleep with someone who does, sleep walking is kind of funny. in the 2008 movie, step brother, will ferrell and john c. riley got a lot of laughs with the sleep walking antics that have been a comedy staple since ancient greece. but in real life, sleep walking can be desperately serious. >> my husband beat the [ bleep ] out of me in his sleep. >> reporter: on february 20th, 2010, at 4:00 a.m., randy was violently attacked by her husband adam, while he was a sleep. >> he started yelling at me. i couldn't reach him. he looked like he was asleep and i didn't understand what was

going on. all of a sudden he beat the [ bleep ] out of me. i'm so scared. >> he punched me in the face three times. he laid back down and continued with his sleep. >> reporter: adam said he had no memory of the terrifying attack. he was arrested for felony domestic abuse and ordered to stay away from his wife, overrandy's objections. >> he's not a violent man. he's never hurt me or made me feel afraid. >> i'm so against violence against women, period, that it's destroying me that they're saying i did this. >> what happened to him is just an extreme example of something we now know is shockingly common. the study published today involving 19,000 adults found 30% of americans had sleep walked at some point in their lives. family history, taking antidepressants or sleeping pills, lack of sleep, they all contribute, the study found. >> we're talking about a condition where safety

implications are not just for the individual themselves, but the safety implication involves the public. >> dr. bornman, studies and treats sleep disorders at the university of minnesota. >> those are at most risk are those in close proximity. >> reporter: violence during sleep, it sounds bizarre and contradictory and it is rare, but think about your dreams and nightmares, our brains are racing, hungering, lusting, fighting. >> he bolts right out of bed and would scream, yell, sometimes it was just nonsense. >> cheryl doil got used to her husband's episodes, even though they got pretty bizarre. after seeing the movie cape fear with robert de niro which is pretty scary, he acted some of it out in his sleep. >> there's a scene where the family is on the boat and they're in the river and the family is trying to escape

robert de niro and they're all jumping into the river, and a dreamt i was on that boat. i got up and out of bed and got a running start and dove into our living room. >> he actually pushed me in a closet, and that's when he dove on to the floor. >> i think it's the flight or fight response that suddenly in a deep sleep, you encounter a major threat, and you have to respond by running away or fighting the threat. >> this doctor say well-known sleep disorder specialist, sleep eaters, sleep screamers, sleep walkers. >> the train tells the body to move, to talk, to have sex, to eat, to become aggressive, and violent. it's the brain that directs the muscles in the rest of the body to engage in these activities. >> reporter: in the documentary sleep runner, he's cataloged a range of disorders including people who eat in their sleep. >> a woman with sleep eating,

every time she eats a bit of her brownie, she extends the pinkie of her hand and nibbles on it, and that's no way that she would ever eat during the day time. >> this woman eats and drinks continuously over two hours while asleep in the dead of the night. >> they generally have partial awareness of what they're doing, but they don't know the full extent until the next morning, then with hor are they'll see all that they ate. also they're disgusted with how they ate, spaghetti and meet balls with their bare hands or a cat-food sandwich. >> mike doyle sleeps with a mask for extra oxygen and it's helped, but today's study shows how much more needs to be done to help all those for whom sleeping can be hazardous to their, or your health. >> adam and randy, that you saw there at the beginning, they're back together and he's being treated for sleep disorders. up next, if your cat's acting crazy, meet the cat

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so what did dl dr. leon and don corleoney have in common? they're macho men who love cats. in real life, we have jackson galaxy, a cat lover who has tamed even the most persnickety kitty. tonight we gave him a challenge, to convince one of them to actually like dan harris. >> this cat will do anything you want, including sit like a baby. >> i don't want to brag, but i've always considered myself to be something of a cat whisperer. i've played with tigers and clouded leopards and my wife and i have three rescue cats at home. i've got a great relationship with the two boys. this is steve, he likes to sleep

on my head, and this his twin brother gus. but then there's ruby. she bears a striking resemblance to walter math thou, and she does not like me at all, which is why i called in this guy, a 275-pound convertible, driving, guitar-playing, heavily tattooed dude, who loves cats. >> at least superficially you're not the stereotype cal pat person. >> in terms of my goals in this lifetime, exploding the concept of what say stereo typical cat person is a huge part of that. >> reporter: his name is jackson galaxy, he's a cat behaviorist, and the star of a reality show on animal planet, called, my cat from hell. >> i have a punch of male

colleagues to say that having cats is a sign that i'm insufficiently masculine. how do you respond to that? >> look at me. >> reporter: on the show, he works with cats like this one. >> she freaked out and bit me and scratched me. >> come o mini. >> after just two weeks of teaching the owners how to use play to calm the cat gown and get her used to the other cats in the house, this. >> this is the first time i've ever president her. >> that's outstanding. >> so you end up functioning as a shrink? >> definitely. >> i'm really nice to this cat and the cat doesn't like me back. >> jackson dove right into our closet to work his magic. >> hi, ruby. >> i managed to get her out and up higher onto her favorite shelf where she loosened up. >> so you're more than capable of being like this with him. >> he gave me home work.

>> for ten days, you're the only feeder, and for ten days, you allow her to come to you, done. >> good girl, good girl. >> jackson was not always this soothing cat expert. years ago he was an aspiring rocker with a serious addiction problem. >> i smoked so much pot, hal usin jens, coke, whatever numbed me. he took a mindless job at an animal shelter. but then beny arrived. a cat who had been hit by a car. >> every day of my life with him, i loved him and wanted to throttle him. every problem that people come to me now for, he exhibited. >> reporter: he tells the story in a new book. >> yeah, getting clean, i did it partially for him, because i made a deal and a made a deal to all the cats i was working with. i would never have done it for me or another human.

i did it for them. >> reporter: back to ruby, i tried feeding her and playing nicely with her for a couple of days, and it is starting to work. >> good girl, ruby. >> reporter: ruby was never in danger of being given up, my wife would give me up first frankly. but in a country where millions of cats are put down every year, his goal is toe make sure every cat has a home. and with the success of his show, he's convinced he can do it. >> you guys can easily have two more cats in this house. >> two more? >> if the guys you worked with knew you had five cats -- >> i'd be dead in the water. >> your man card revoked. >> i have a sliver of a man card right now. for "nightline," this is dan harris in my apartment in new york city. >> so glad that all worked out, dan. and thank you for watching abc ne